The embodiments herein relate generally to athletic equipment.
Prior to embodiments of the disclosed invention, users could not use different swim fins which prevented finding the optimal swim fin or being able to take advantage of advances in swim fin technology (by trying new more advanced swim fins) or require the user to have two sets of fins in the event the user did not wish to use an embodiment of the swim fin assembly, and leg and muscle strain were problems for a swimmer. Some endeavors in this field include: U.S. Pat. No. 6,702,633 issued to Johnson; U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,502 issued to Hull; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,060 issued to Lam.
Johnson and Lam both teach a swim fin assembly having a fin attached to one of two points on a shoe worn around the foot and ankle of a human user. Neither teaches a brace that covers a portion of a human user's calf. Hull teaches a diving fin with a brace that is configured to wrap around a user's calf. The brace is attached to a lockably engagable blade that acts as the fin. However, there is not a locking hinge that can hold a fin. Embodiments of the disclosed invention solve this problem.